The social media giant has agreed to stop using an ad-serving tool after it was alleged that its algorithm discriminated against people on the basis of color, race, nationality, sex, religion, disability, and familial status.
A downtown Atlanta Subway employee was fatally shot and another was injured Sunday after a customer opened fire because there was too much mayonnaise on his sandwich, according to police and an owner of the store.
Members of the rock band Pink Floyd are seeking at least $500 million in a deal for their music catalog, according to people familiar with the talks, which would be one of the largest sales in music history.
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) agents suspected that Nia Moore-Bush was involved in illegal drug and firearm sales. So, without obtaining a warrant, they mounted a sophisticated camera on a telephone pole and surveilled her Massachusetts home for eight months in 2017.
We asked what they will do to prevent cases being built against women. So far: Nothing
@#75 ... My friend you are so far out of touch with reality, it's frightening. ...
Fact Check: Is Florida drug-testing welfare recipients? (2015)
www.jacksonville.com
...I read on Facebook that a new law in Florida requires welfare recipients to get drug tests and, as a result, thousands of welfare recipients have left the state. True or not?
Florida only required welfare recipients to undergo drug tests for four months back in 2011, so reports that the "new" law led to a mass exodus of welfare recipients from the state are false.
Media reports recounted how, on June 1, 2011, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a bill requiring adults applying for welfare assistance to undergo drug screening.
"It's the right thing for taxpayers," CNN and other media quoted Scott as saying after signing the legislation. "It's the right thing for citizens of this state that need public assistance. We don't want to waste tax dollars. And also, we want to give people an incentive to not use drugs."
Under the law, which took effect on July 1, the Florida Department of Children and Family Services was required to conduct the drug tests on adults applying to the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, media accounts show. The aid recipients would be responsible for the cost of the screening, which they would recoup in their assistance if they qualify. Those who fail the required drug testing may designate another individual to receive the benefits on behalf of their children, the law allowed.
But the measure quickly drew fire.
Shortly after the bill was signed, five Democrats from the state's congressional delegation, including Rep. Corrine Brown, issued a joint statement, calling it "downright unconstitutional."...
A temporary injunction by a federal judge in Orlando temporarily halted the law in October 2011, saying that the law could violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment.
While the law was in effect from July 1 through October 2011, it showed few results. State data showed that only 108 out of 4,086 people tested - 2.6 percent - were found to have been using narcotics, the New York Times, CNN and numerous other media reported. State records showed that the requirement cost more money to carry out than it saved.
A ruling in February 2013 from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta affirmed the injunction. That December, a U.S. district judge permanently halted the law.
Scott and the state continued to argue in favor of the law, although their appeals failed. ...
@#21 ... a result of policy that ENCOURAGES and promotes this type of illegal entry. ...
Companies should stop hiring those who enter the Country illegally.
Enforcement should be against the companies.
If the lure of jobs did not exist, the number of people trying to enter the Country illegally will drop.
An excerpt from the Border Patrol Union webpage that was deleted during fmr Pres Trump's term:
web.archive.org
Walls and fences are temporary solutions that focus on the symptom (illegal immigration) rather than the problem (employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens).
Walls and fences are only a speed bump. People who want to come to the United States to obtain employment will continue to go over, under, and around the walls and fences that are constructed.
Walls and fences will undoubtedly result in an increase in fraudulent documents and smuggling through the Ports of Entry.
Walls and fences do not solve the issue of people entering the country legally and staying beyond the date they are required to leave the country, a problem which will undoubtedly increase as more walls and fences are constructed.
Ukrainian grain: How to Lift Russia's Black Sea Blockade?
www.navalnews.com
...The Ukrainian grain crisis continues as a result of Russia's blockade of Black Sea ports, which prevents Ukrainian wheat shipments. As the war continues, the stocks of countries that rely on Ukraine for wheat are diminishing. A possible famine is looming. Everyone agrees on the necessity to solve this problem to avoid a major humanitarian crisis. ...
Related...
Facebook is bombarding cancer patients with ads for unproven treatments
www.technologyreview.com
...The ad reads like an offer of salvation: Cancer kills many people. But there is hope in Apatone, a proprietary vitamin C"based mixture, that is "KILLING cancer." The substance, an unproven treatment that is not approved by the FDA, is not available in the United States. If you want Apatone, the ad suggests, you need to travel to a clinic in Mexico.
If you're on Facebook or Instagram and Meta has determined you may be interested in cancer treatments, it's possible you've seen this ad, or one of the 20 or so others recently running from the CHIPSA hospital in Mexico near the US border, all of which are publicly listed in Meta's Ad Library. They are part of a pattern on Facebook of ads that make misleading or false health claims, targeted at cancer patients.
Evidence from Facebook and Instagram users, medical researchers, and its own Ad Library suggests that Meta is rife with ads containing sensational health claims, which the company directly profits from. The misleading ads may remain unchallenged for months and even years. Some of the ads reviewed by MIT Technology Review promoted treatments that have been proved to cause acute physical harm in some cases. Other ads pointed users toward highly expensive treatments with dubious outcomes. ...
@#15 ... The Ukrainian military mined their own waters. It's the mines preventing grain shipments,not a "blockade"...
Russia's Blockade of Ukraine's Ports Is Causing a Humanitarian Disaster
www.thebulwark.com
...The greatest obstacle to Ukrainian victory might be not Russia's ground forces but its navy. Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports is putting enormous economic pressure on Ukraine -- a major supplier of global agricultural products such as wheat, sunflower oil, and barley seeds -- and the defenders don't have a navy to break it. But for Vladimir Putin, the blockade's effect on the Ukrainian economy is likely a secondary consideration. His primary objective is instead to inflict pain on the rest of the world and extract concessions from Western Europe. The strategy appears to be working....
@#3 ... insurrection conspirator Jeff Clark ...
What to know about Jeffrey Clark, the one DOJ official willing to do Trump's coup
www.vox.com
...For a brief moment in early January 2021, it looked like Jeffrey Clark's moment in the sun had arrived. He was poised to become a major player in Washington.
All he needed to do was successfully convince then-President Donald Trump to install him as acting attorney general, then demand that key swing states won by Joe Biden send a separate slate of pro-Trump electors to Congress, thus overturning Biden's Electoral College win.
Up to that point, Clark was, in the eyes of true Washington insiders, a schnook, a comparative nobody.
It wasn't that he was unaccomplished. Clark had a solid resume as a graduate of Harvard and Georgetown Law, and spent over a decade as a partner at the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis. He had even been Senate-confirmed. In 2018, Trump nominated Clark to be assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice. He was confirmed on a near party-line vote, with opposition due to the fact that Clark, who represented BP in his private practice, was a climate science skeptic. Clark was exactly the type of smart guy with a ceiling that makes up the upper-middle class of Washington policymakers.
But Washington law firms and Nationals Park box seats are jam-packed with unobtrusive Republicans who represent the fossil fuel industry. There are fewer who sought to actively overturn a democratic election and vied to be the hatchet man for an outgoing president determined to stay in power....
@#10 ... A friend of mine was their chief sound man for much of the 80's and 90's. Massive operation. ...
To wit...
Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii
en.wikipedia.org
...The band insisted on playing live, and brought their regular touring gear with them. Their roadie, Peter Watts, suggested that the 8-track recorder[2] would produce a sound comparable to a studio recording. In addition, the natural echo of the amphitheatre provided good acoustics for the recording.[7] The equipment was carried by truck from London and took three days to reach Pompeii. When it arrived, it was discovered there was insufficient power to drive it correctly.[6] This problem plagued filming for several days, and was finally resolved by running a lengthy cable from the local town hall.[7]...
Good think I checked, I was just about to post this article, albeit the original AP version
( apnews.com )
The article is not forward-looking.
There's been a couple of significant political events that may effect voters.
... But nowhere is the shift more pronounced -- and dangerous for Democrats -- than in the suburbs, where well-educated swing voters who turned against Trump's Republican Party in recent years appear to be swinging back. ...
Will those suburban swing voters stay with the Republicans in the voting booth after the recent Supreme Court decisions?
One thing I am fairly sure of, this summer is going to contain a lot of ugly campaigning, with Democrats trying to leverage the SCOTUS decisions, and the GOP trying to make the decisions fade away.
@#2 ... One has to wonder which dependent country is going to step up and send Mr. Putin a care package. ...
Russia has the money to pay the bond holders. That is not the problem.
The problem is that sanctions dried up the means for Russia to pay the bondholders.
Russia Slips Into Historic Default as Sanctions Muddy Next Steps
www.yahoo.com
...Russia defaulted on its external sovereign bonds for the first time in a century, the culmination of ever-tougher Western sanctions that shut down payment routes to overseas creditors.
For months, Russia had found paths around the penalties imposed after the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine. But at the end of the day on Sunday, the grace period on about $100 million of trapped interest payments due May 27 expired, a deadline considered an "Event of Default" if missed.
The route to this point has been far from normal, as Russia has the resources to pay its bills -- and tried to do so -- but was blocked by the sanctions. Those restrictions also mean there's huge uncertainty about what comes next, and about how investors can go about getting their money....
@#80 ... While I am sure you appreciate the long copy and paste it had nothing to do with my post ...
My comment responded to your post #75 which, in turn, was a reply to #71.
#71 was about the drug testing program for welfare recipients and ended with the sentence...
To which you responded in #75...
In my #77 post, I merely cited an article that did a fact-check on #71.
And guess what, it showed #71 to be spot-on, and not worthy of your "you are so far out of touch with reality, it's frightening" comment.
So, it appears that my citation of the article from 2015 did have quite a bit to do with your post.